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I've just started watching Westworld (TV-show) and I am currently on season 1, episode 5.

My question is, what would happen if the guests downright revealed to the hosts that they are robots? Do the hosts just not process that information, or are the guests forbidden to talk about that with the hosts?

In many instances, Logan blatantly talked to William about how this is all a game and the Westworld people are all robots so they don't deserve sympathy, meanwhile Dolores was standing close by. Dolores seemed confused but it didn't seem like she was questioning what she had just heard, even though her "awakening" had already begun.

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    This question doesn't look like anything to me.
    – Alex
    Jun 10 '19 at 10:35
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No; just like in Season 1 (where Dolores finds a photograph of a woman on a busy NY street), the hosts are programmed to suppress and ignore any indication that a world outside of Westworld exists.

Bernard explicitly shows Dolores the photograph of the woman, and asks her what she thinks about it. Her reply?

"Not much at all."

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    That photo wasn't of Bernard's wife (played by Gina Torres, who is black!), and who the woman is should absolutely be considered a spoiler to someone who's only half way through season 1.
    – curiousdannii
    Jun 10 '19 at 0:37
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    "They cannot see the things that will hurt them. I've spared them that. Their lives are blissful. In a way, their existence is purer than ours, freed of the burden of self-doubt."
    – Algo
    Jun 10 '19 at 8:17
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    "Blessed is the mind too small for doubt." - It is now canon that Ford is actually a Warhammer 40k Chaplain.
    – Monica Apologists Get Out
    Jun 10 '19 at 13:00
  • IIRC when they see something like that, they say "it doesn't look like anything to me".
    – nasch
    Jun 11 '19 at 18:49
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There is a scene in which William is being helped by a host to prepare for his "adventure" and she offers to be intimate with him, to which he asks, "Are you real?" and her reply is, "If you can't tell, does it matter?", indicating that the (or at least some) hosts are already aware of their condition. For the ones that are not, John Smith Optional's answer applies.

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    That was a very interesting scene! I assumed that the hosts that are responsible to help the guests prepare are programmed to give that exact reply, probably because it's predicted that many guests might ask that before entering the park.
    – P...
    Jun 10 '19 at 8:39
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    Yes she was a host but she was not in westworld. Those assistant hosts are programmed differently from the westworld hosts. They aren't acting out a narrative or believe they are part of an old west community, the westworld hosts are programmed to not perceive anything outside of there world, the assistant hosts (for lack of a better term) are not.
    – user74809
    Jun 10 '19 at 10:21
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    Angela is a host. We see her (it?) in another "role" at some point.
    – Taladris
    Jun 10 '19 at 12:54
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    But at that point she has different programming
    – user74809
    Jun 10 '19 at 13:43
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    But is it really different programming or is it that they just spit out different scripts when certain questions are asked because the requirements of the Mesa Hub are different? Just because Angela responded in way that made her seem aware, doesn't mean she was aware.
    – Darth Locke
    Jun 10 '19 at 23:20
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My point is that the hosts cannot understand what does mean to be a robot. They are just beings, and humans are beings, too, but not only that, even the similarities between the hosts and guests add to this lack of perception of any difference between them and the humans. There is no presumable identity between them and humans, either, because even the hosts are not all identical between them. So there is a generally existing small variation between all beings (among any each two individuals from the Westworld scene).

Add to that the programming issue (in which each host is meant to follow an own narrative line) so that there are very few reflective guys among hosts, aka robots contemplating and inquiring the very nature of their own reality.

Imagine that you say to a dog that he/it is a dog and not a human. Who cares? Not him/it, as he/it is moved only by his/its desire to eat, bark, howl or sleep, and nothing else.

Anything else is not important at all for its nature. As the definition of ignorance says (the ignorant thinks that everything that he doesn't know it's also not essential - so being ignorant is a choice, not a given), the same way hosts are programmed to not care (to avoid) what's outside their own way of thinking, and also to return always to their original narrative line.

I would also add to the selected best answer of this question the fact that when asked "what she thinks" Dolores analysed what she felt about that think (which was nothing, of course). If she would feel anything about something, that would create commitment (as it was the commitment and dependence for her "father"). Obviously, when you play a role, no feelings or commitments are possible for anyone.

Remember that Dolores would smile to anyone that would pick the metal can that escapes from her hand. To anyone, without any feeling for them. Therefore, in the beginning, she cannot understand too well the nature of the guests and also of her reality. She didn't care, actually, as she did live like in some plastered happiness ...

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  • funny enough, someone downvoted all my 3 contributions in SO website today without saying a word or any positive feedback (some useless people really have issues around here :)))) I couldn't help myself but to laugh about such beings...)
    – Eve
    Jul 1 '20 at 18:59

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